The mistress of spices

A home cook in Kerala is spreading the word about sunshine cuisine

Fishing nets in Kochi on th Kerala coast. Picture: Mike Dolan

A home cook in Kerala is spreading the word about sunshine cuisine

NIMMY Paul doesn't like the heat and has forthright ideas on what foods are best suited to sultry weather. Shellfish should be avoided, for example, when temperatures are high. But this can be a dilemma when it's 35C and she has cooking classes booked at her charming 1940s bungalow in the precinct of Ernakulam in Kochi, in the Indian state of Kerala.

"I cannot just cook and serve a shoestring lunch," she confides, her pretty face showing real alarm. "My students have paid good money and they have expectations."

India's sunshine-blessed southwest coastal state of Kerala is abundant in lobsters, mussels, tiger prawns, crabs and succulent river and ocean fish, such as pomfret, pearl spot, grouper, sardines and the firm-fleshed seer, very similar to Spanish mackerel. So there are heat-addled days when Nimmy has to overcome her objections to rich ingredients and include seafood on her lunch menus.

But she will serve sensibly small portions, mostly thali style on a stainless-steel platter with compartments for each curry, vegetable variety and condiment and a space for a hillock of coarse-grained Kerala red rice. "There always must be rice for lunch," she declares. "And pickles." In her 2002 book Kitchens of Kerala, Nimmy writes of "tongue-tickling pickles", which is the ideal description for chutneys variously made with coconut, tomato, tamarind, green mango, zesty lime and plenty of red chilli.

Nimmy was reared on a plantation, the youngest of eight children, and both her mother and grandma were "great cooks". Her professional interest in food came much later when her son had grown and after a career in teaching home economics. She started her cooking school slowly, mostly for American tourists sent her way by travel agency contacts. Word spread, press coverage ensued, author Paul Theroux dropped in to try five styles of fish curry and lauded in print Nimmy's deliciously aromatic meen pollichathu, "a deep-red curry of fish cooked in a spicy mixture thick with onions, garlic, ginger and chilli powder".

Now Nimmy runs full-day programs as well as tailored shorter classes. "Some guests are more curious and want a hands-on approach," she tells me, "but most are happy just to watch."

No doubt the former category includes Sydney chef and restaurateur Christine Manfield, who wrote in Nimmy's visitors' book: "Sensational food, generosity and passion."

Among Nimmy's showcase dishes are idli rice cakes, the southern Indian version of the classic Indian breakfast dosa, which are served with a coconut chutney packed with green chillies, onion and ginger. Achappam, or thin and crunchy rice pretzels, is another typical Kerala dish, and rice-flour appam pancakes, with their lacy edges and puffy centres, are a must.

Nimmy also demonstrates the making of molee, or fish stews in turmeric-laden coconut sauce, and moplah biryani, a Muslim rice dish, rather like a pilau, that has spread to other communities and, done traditionally, features about 20 ingredients. Kerala curries often contain fruit such as plantain or bitter gourd, and typically are thickened with coconut milk or grated coconut. Sauces are sometimes sour, with lots of lime juice or tamarind.

One recipe with special connections is her gingery Acha's inji kari, named in her father's memory. "This was his favourite," she says, "and my mother made sure it was on the table for lunch every day."

Nimmy's bungalow kitchen and sheltered outdoor cooking annexe are miles removed from a slick cooking school set-up but all the more charming for their homeliness. With a household servant to hand, and her amiable retired stockbroker husband, V. J. Paul (like most Syrian Christians, in Kerala, he's known by his last name), hovering, Nimmy is mistress of a fragrant, slightly cluttered domain of two gas burners, oversized pans and lovely earthenware pots known as curry chutties.

Shelves are stacked with uruli, or wide and shallow bell-metal cooking dishes, and her benches are arrayed with jars of spices and bushy bunches of fresh herbs and exotic ingredients such as kokum, the sour-sweet dried fruit of the gamboge tree.

Kerala is India's spice central, an Arabian Sea trading port settled by waves of Portuguese, Dutch and British colonial powers and famous for its black pepper, cardamom, cloves and cinnamon.

"What I cook is healthier than most Indian food," Nimmy says. "I use less oil and ghee and often serve dishes in the Ayurvedic style. There's no oil floating on top of the food, nothing unhealthy."

Even a plate of her mashed potato balls seasoned with onion, ginger and coriander seems a non-starchy dish with the addition of such perky flavours.

At the end of a day-long course, Nimmy may serve a meal influenced by the Portuguese and the Catholic missionaries, or from her family's Syrian Christian tradition, which she explains is so called for the particular rites that set the strands of this religion apart from Catholicism and not because of connections to Syria.

But when Nimmy reveals that roast chicken could be on the dinner menu, let's not imagine she means the classic grandma's Sunday roast.

Hers is an aromatic braised bird with roasted onions, enlivened with minced ginger, fresh curry leaves, cayenne, cloves and the seemingly obligatory Kerala ingredient, a cinammon stick.

My visit is in mid-afternoon and Nimmy's high-tea spread of cucumber sandwiches and lemon cake hints at a colonial refinement in keeping with the elegance of the old whitewashed bungalow on its prime corner block. Outside there's the rising tide of traffic noise, the whirling dust of the pre-monsoonal south, the auto-rickshaw three-wheelers scurrying around skinny goats and holy cows. But in Nimmy's dining room it's fine china, finger food and polite conversation as ceiling fans stir the sultry air.

A stroll in her garden reveals old trees replete with giant jackfruit, papaya and mango; a vivid flash of blue between the branches signals a kingfisher dropping by, as if on stage director's cue. Nimmy's classes have made US Gourmet Magazine's rollcall of the world's best cooking schools in the Relaxed category, which may be a remove from the publication's top Luxury or Immersion listings. But with a glass of fresh buttermilk or pulped mango juice to hand and the holiday aroma of coconut in the air, who needs celebrity chefs with their brigades of kitchenhands and designer plateware?

Make mine a banana leaf and a curry in no hurry.

Susan Kurosawa was a guest of Singapore Airlines and Wildlife Safari.

Checklist
Wildlife Safari's Indian Tapestry program includes touring in Kerala. More: 1800 998 558; www.wildlifesafari.com.au.

The small publication Kitchens of Kerala by Salim Pushpanath and Nimmy Paul costs about 150 rupees ($2.50) from Kerala bookstores.

Singapore Airlines has almost 100 flights a week to Singapore from five Australian capitals, with convenient connections to 10 destinations in India, including Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, Kolkata, Chennai and Ahmedabad; services to Kochi, Thiruvananthapuram, Hyderabad and Coimbatore are operated by regional partner airline Silk Air.

Return economy airfares start from $1468 from east coast ports including taxes (valid for travel to November 17; conditions apply). More: 131 011; www.singaporeair.com.au; www.silkair.com